Cheyenne and Northern Railway

Throughout the 1870s and 1880s businessmen and politicians in Wyoming petitioned the Union Pacific to build a line to support the growing region.

Territorial Governor Francis E. Warren estimated that Wyoming Central shipped $300,000 worth of cattle east through Nebraska instead of Cheyenne.

[1] Due to fears that the lingering dislike for Union Pacific would prevent the passage of a bond, cattleman Thomas Sturgis suggested to Union Pacific that a local company be created to build the line which could then be absorbed into the larger company at a later time.

The initial investors included Warren, Sturgis and Phillip Dater, first president of the Cheyenne Club.

The eventual goal of the railroad was to build all the way north to the Northern Pacific line in Montana but the immediate target was Douglas, Wyoming.